


add pin to map (shelter, radio, andersteins)

by forgetcanon



Series: the bold and the faithful [2]
Category: Fallout 3
Genre: Charon POV, Gen, ashley: hey you ever wonder what'll happen when you die?, charon: no and i am DEFINITELY not thinking about it now, contemplation of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:06:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22658281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forgetcanon/pseuds/forgetcanon
Summary: “Sorry for dragging you around like this,” she said, as she often did. As though she intended, sometime soon, to come to her senses and stop doing things like this. “But this is a good place to take a break for a while, I think.”Charon intended to say, “Fine.” But what came out of his mouth was, “You knew they were dead.”
Relationships: Charon & Lone Wanderer, Charon (Fallout) & Female Lone Wanderer
Series: the bold and the faithful [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1203790
Comments: 3
Kudos: 22





	add pin to map (shelter, radio, andersteins)

It took the better part of an hour and a half to locate the source of the signal. Charon kept out a watchful eye- out in the open was not his preferred work environment. And he had an inkling of what they would find, and of how his young employer would react. At least she did not demand comfort from him when she cried, but it was still… discomfiting, to have an employer so easily affected.

Charon went first into the underground tunnel as Ashley kept watch above. As he expected, nothing but dust, skeletons, and a battery with a longer life than any of them should expect to have. “All clear,” he barked, and Ashley climbed down after him.

She saw the remains. Carefully approached them. Her back was to him, but Charon knew the signs by now- a brightening of the eyes, a tremble in the jaw. He didn’t have to see it to know. He stayed near the ladder, content to be out of the blazing sun while his employer subjected herself to… this.

After a few moments of quiet, she crossed to the radio. It didn’t take her long to turn the device off. And then she remained seated in the chair, half-turned towards the mattress where the skeletons intertwined. No tears, surprisingly enough. Just solemn consideration.

“Sorry for dragging you around like this,” she said, as she often did. As though she intended, sometime soon, to come to her senses and stop doing things like this. “But this is a good place to take a break for a while, I think.”

Charon intended to say, “Fine.” But what came out of his mouth was, “You knew they were dead.”

Ashley nodded. “Nobody calls it DC anymore. And no one nowadays would broadcast to the entire world that they’re vulnerable like this. It’s basically asking for slavers to jump you.” She looked over at him. Charon knew, he _knew_ that his expression was neutral. He didn’t question employers. He didn’t expect reasons or explanations, only orders and feedback. But she still said, “I hope someone would do the same for me.”

She expected some kind of response. Charon grunted noncommittally, something that could be read as agreement or as a question, whichever she preferred.

“Take a few moments to think of me,” she explained. “I don’t want to be mourned forever, not by a stranger. Seems weird. But if I ever find myself dying, and I leave a message, I’d like to think that someone would find me, and think of me. That someone would know that I was here, and now I’m not.”

He grunted in response. She seemed to take that as an end to the conversation and started rooting around the long-sealed shelter for something to occupy her time. True to form, she managed to find two heavy books in readable condition. Great. 

His own death was something he rarely considered beyond avoiding it. One of his earliest employers often requested that, should Charon die, he try not to make a mess. He knew that after his death his impact on the world would amount to an inconvenient body for his employer to discard.

Ashley likely wouldn’t leave him where he lay, Charon realized. She would try to bury him or something equally foolish. Spend hours exposed in the open, digging awkwardly with a scavenged shovel, or move his corpse somewhere more secluded to memorialize him, or...

He should probably warn her not to do so. It would be dangerous, not to mention a waste of effort better used getting herself to safety.

After they ate and drank and waited for the harsh noonday sun to pass, Ashley gathered the three skeletons in their sheet and moved them aboveground, placing them in the shade. She shook out the sheet and tossed it back inside, commenting, “No mold growing down there, a working radio tower- it’s secure shelter, if we ever need it.”

They moved on. It was an unremarkable stop, just another pin in Ashley’s heavily annotated map.

Charon shouldn’t let it get to him. That was what he told himself, on the inconvenient occasion that the memory rose to the surface. The solemn set of her face- no tears, just recognition. The deliberate way she arranged the skulls, facing outwards from the rock, as though they would like to watch the landscape. Her quiet preference to be remembered by anyone at all, even for a moment, as though she didn’t have friends and contacts that would miss or mourn her.

It didn’t mean anything, in the long run. But Charon didn’t expect any of their runs to be very long.


End file.
